Warbird Heritage Foundation A-4B inspection to Airworthy

[Warbird Kid]

Or instead of selling it (alot more money would be needed of course)

But why not have a pair of Scooters in your stable?

[RickH]

To be honest, no I don't. We still have Spraylat in places on the Foundation's S-2 and an HH1K Huey that I know of.

[Sabremech]

It would take a large investment to return this Scooter to the air. Not that it can't be done, but is the reason we bought the one from the EAA. I see the cost to get this one going and could only imagine tackling a project like our spare A4 would be. Nice idea of a pair of Scooters ( We'll have to get together with Rick H's Scooter). We're back to work on our project and hope to add a few things that were missing from our plane onto it now from the other bird. It will now have a few more original items back on it that it was missing. Stay tuned to our progress.
David
WHF Maint
www.warbirdheritagefoundation.org

[Sabremech]

Its been a while since I did an update and I wish I had more to tell about the progress on our A4. I can report there's been a little progress, but until we get the engine components back, it's at a snails pace. It is doubtful that we will be ready by Oshkosh for a few reasons, that being parts that are difficult to find. We've been pulling other parts from our spare A4 and will be fitting and installing those in the coming weeks. Our Scooter will have a little different look when we are finished than when we purchased her. Lately our attention has been on the Foundations F86 Sabre as the engine is on the test cell and has been run. There's a few bugs to work out there, then we'll be able to install an engine and get her back in the air.
David
WHF Maint
www.warbirdheritagefoundation.org

David - thanks for the updates. I know that the T-2, L-39 and A-4 are listed on the WHF events schedule as coming to Thunder Over Michigan in August, but do you still think there is a chance that it could make an air show debut there, if it doesn't make it at Oshkosh?

Also, if the A-4B is not ready by August, is there a chance that the F-86F will be ready and that it could make a trip to Michigan in August with the T-2 and L-39?

Keep up the great work!

[Sabremech]

Hi Jim,
It's very doubtful that we'll make Thunder with the A4. We have some parts issues as well as having to get our pilots typed in the plane before we go to an airshow. I think we're looking forward to next years airshow season with the Scooter.
We still hope to have the F86 up and going soon. The engine is coming along and once we get it back it will take about 2 weeks to get it finished and flying. I'm still counting on having the Sabre flying before Oshkosh. I'll certainly post here when we get these airplanes up and going.
Thanks for checking on our progress.
David
WHF Maint
www.warbirdheritagefoundation.org

[Sabremech]

Saturdays trip to Oshkosh came with a big suprise. The hangar had flooded on Thursday due to the large amount of rain. We suspect that the storm drains could not keep up and we ended up with almost a foot of water in the hangar. Minor damage to our stuff: the drop tanks floated around a bit, the tailpipe exhaust shields are soaked, and a set of manuals that were on the lower shelf are now in my basement in the process of drying off. I'll post some pictures tonight of the hangar.
David
WHF Maint
www.warbirdheritagefoundation.org

[CAPFlyer]

Ouch. We'd be happy to see some of that rain down here in North Central Texas between Weatherford and Greenville on the east and west, Sherman and Waco on the north and south. Anywhere outside this area has enough for a while.

Gotta love weather - it'll soak one side of the street but it'll be sunny on the other.

[Sabremech]

Here's a couple of photos of the flood. Here's our soggy manuals.


Our equipment we made is now a little rusty.


And our drop tanks were floating a bit and ended up with a small dent to fix later.



Things are drying out now. I'll be back up north this weekend to work on picking up some ground support equipment for the Skyhawk and looking at the airplane to get myself familiar with where we left off and what needs to be worked on now while we wait for the engine parts.

Check out our website for some new maint photos of our T6 and some new photos of the L-19 Birddog.
David
WHF Maint
www.warbirdheritagefoundation.org

[Fouga23]

If the manuals start growing fungus while drying, put them in the freezer a couple of days!

[Sabremech]

Thanks for the tip. I checked them last night and they are mostly dry. I need to go through each book and check for mold.

David

[Rod Schneider]

Just a bump to see if there is anything new to report? How's the F-86 coming along?

[Sabremech]

Hi Rod and thanks for checking on us.
Progress is held up right now as we're waiting for our engine to pass test cell for the Sabre. It's pretty close now as one of the problems has been fixed. One more to go. The componenets for the A4 engine should start to show up soon and we can make a little progress on it. The big hold up is still some components for the seat.
Most of the rest of our time has been maintaining the other airplanes and keeping the T2 going with the Navy Legacy flight schedule. It's a good airplane, but has had a few minor problems lately. The T2 is off to Thunder tomorrow morning early. Take Care and check back as we will get these birds in the air soon.
David
WHF Maint

[Sabremech]

We're back to work on the A4!! It's been a while since we had our hands on her and today we went back to work. We fit the canopy and the canopy actuator from our A4C spare airplane as the original canopy was damaged while in the care of the EAA. The actuator worked fine and the canopy fit well. I'll start to disassemble this canopy and get it ready to repaint and install the glass from the original if this one can't be cleaned up. We also worked on another project that we've been evaluating whether it will work or not. It looks like it will so we'll be going ahead with it. We're going to keep it our secret for a while until we get the plane ready for the first flight.
Here's a couple of pictures of the canopy work today.



David
WHF Maint
www.warbirdheritagefoundation.org

[Warbird Kid]

Keep it coming!!! I wanna see it in the air before Halloween!